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Research

Managing Research Information

for Researchers and Universities

Jennifer SchaffnerProgram Officer

OCLC Research

LIBER 40th Annual Conference

30 June 2011, Barcelona

Research LIBER 30 June, 2011


2

Syllabus:

• Risks for research libraries

• Universities managing research information

• Researchers managing research information

• Libraries managing research information



3

Risks

for Research Libraries



4

Risks to research libraries?



5

Our business is at risk

Legacy Technology

Human Resources

Value Proposition

Durable Goods

Intellectual Property

… a reduced sense of library relevance from

below, above, and within

… uncertainties about adequate preparation,

adaptability, capacity for leadership in face of

change

… changing value of library collections and space;

prices go up, value goes down – accounting

doesn’t acknowledge the change

… managing and maintaining legacy systems is a

challenge; replacement parts are hard to find

… losing some traditional assets to commercial

providers (e.g. Google Books) and failing to

assume clear ownership stake in others (e.g. local

scholarly outputs)



6

http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/using-and-accessing-information-resources/challenges-academic-libraries-difficult-economic-

“All our focus group members agreed

that they must find ways of doing

things differently; and many saw

budget cuts as an opportunity to re-

think what the library does and what

it means.

“But they have as yet few concrete

proposals that will transform

services or yield large-scale

efficiency savings, at least within the

bounds of individual universities.”



7

Universities




8

“Ensuring a bright future…”

for vice-chancellors and

senior institutional managers

“a guide to ensure their

library and information services

keep pace with

the evolving needs

of researchers”

www.rin.ac.uk/ensuring-bright-future-libraries



9

Research Assessment Regimes

Assessment

Institution

•UK

•Netherlands

•Denmark

•Ireland

•Australia

oclc.org/research/publications/library/2010/2010-01.pdf

http://www.oclc.org/research/publications/library/2010/2010-01.pdf



researchsupport.leeds.ac.uk/images/uploads/docs/PRMReport.pdf

Professionalising

Research

Management

http://researchsupport.leeds.ac.uk/images/uploads/docs/PRMReport.pdf



13

Commercial services

http://researchanalytics.thomsonreuters.com/



14



15

Researchers




16

http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/using-and-accessing-information-resources/researchers-use-academic-libraries-and-their-serv



17



18

What Researchers Want

(2011)

http://www.surffoundation.nl/nl/publicaties/Documents/What_researchers_want.pdf

(literature study of researchers’ requirements

for storage and access to research data)

“…The key requirement from most researchers’

perspectives is for services which are there when

they need them, but do not interfere with the

creative work at the heart of the research

process.” (Henty, 2008)



19

Leicester

UC London

Warwick

York

Cornell

Ohio State

U Washington

Vanderbilt



20

Supporting Research







22

http://www.ithaka.org/ithaka-s-r/research/faculty-surveys-2000-2009/Faculty%20Study%202009.pdf

“…the academic library

is increasingly being

disintermediated from

the discovery process…”



23



24



26

http://urfistinfo.hypotheses.org/1901

62% of respondents

did not file their

scientific output in

an open archive



27

http://escholarship.org/uc/item/0kr8s78v



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“... our findings suggest that enthusiasm for the

development and adoption of technology should not

be conflated with the hard reality of tenure and

promotion requirements …

“Experiments in new genres of scholarship and

dissemination are occurring in every field, but they

are taking place within the context of relatively

conservative value and reward systems that have the

practice of peer review at their core.”



31

UK case studies – what motivates researchers?



33

http://www.dcc.ac.uk/sites/default/files/documents/public

ations/SCARP-Synthesis.pdf

http://www.parse-insight.eu/downloads/PARSE-Insight_D3-

6_InsightReport.pdf

http://www.dcc.ac.uk/sites/default/files/documents/publications/SCARP-Synthesis.pdf






34

http://www.rin.ac.uk/

“There is a significant gap

between how researchers

behave and the policies and

strategies of funders and

service providers.”



36

• Speed and convenience

• Use whatever works

• Simplify and accelerate

• Digital deterrent?

• Hybrid researchers

• Frustration about lack

of linking and

incomplete digital

archives

• Domain specialists

development services

http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/using-and-accessing-information-resources/information-use-case-studies-humanities



38

Libraries




39

“the value of any

library is inextricably

linked to the values

of the university”

www.rin.ac.uk/value-of-libraries

Value



40

LIBER and OCLC Research



42

Denmark’s Electronic Research Library (DEFF):

http://www.bibliotekogmedier.dk/fileadmin/publikationer/rapporter_oevrige/deff/the_future_research/index.htm

The Future of Research

and the Research Library




45

Pondering…




46

Gaps?

Infrastructure?

• Discipline-specific support, when desired?

• Discipline-specific repository provision, where needed?

• Name-disambiguation?

• Registries and terminologies?

• Metadata guardian/broker?

Tools and services?

• Pandora for articles?

• Scanning and OCR for lab notebooks?

• Data guru?

• Updating web pages…(blah)?

• Institute or cafeteria of research support services?



47

institution / individual

administrative support / scholarly support

institution-centered / discipline-centered

centralized / decentralized universities

services used / services desired

scientific / professional personas

shared / bespoke / duplicative services

funding structures and sources

researcher

discipline university



48

[email protected]

Thanks to John MacColl, Ricky Erway, Susan Kroll

Rick Forsman, Ian Rowlands, Michael Jubb, Jim

Michalko, Constance Malpas and my colleagues

in OCLC Research.

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]



49

Sources consulted:

• Beagrie, Neil, Robert Beagrie and Ian Rowlands. 2009. “Research data

preservation and access: the views of researchers.” Ariadne 60 (July).

http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue60/beagrie-et-al/

• Denmark’s Electronic Research Library (DEFF). 2009. The Future of

research and the research library. Copenhagen: DEFF.

http://www.bibliotekogmedier.dk/fileadmin/publikationer/rapporter_oev

rige/deff/the_future_research/index.htm

• Digital Curation Centre (DCC). 2010. Open to All? Case studies of openness

in research. London: RIN/NESTA. http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/data-

management-and-curation/open-science-case-studies

• Feijen, Martin. 2011. What researchers want: a literature study of

researchers’ requirements with respect to storage and access to data.

Utrecht: SURFfoudation.

http://www.surffoundation.nl/nl/publicaties/Documents/What_researche

rs_want.pdf








http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/data-management-and-curation/open-science-case-studies



















50

Sources consulted:

• Green, John and David Langley. 2009. Professionalising research

management. London: Higher Education Funding Council for England

(HEFCE) and the Medical Research Council (MRC).


• Harley, Diane, Sophia Krzys Acord, Sarah Earl-Novell, Shannon Lawrence,

and C. Judson King. 2010. Assessing the future landscape of scholarly

communication: an exploration of faculty values and needs in seven

disciplines. Berkeley: UC Berkeley Center for Studies in Higher Education.

http://escholarship.org/uc/cshe_fsc

• Hey, Tony, Stewart Tansley, and Kristin Tolle, eds. 2009. The Fourth

paradigm: data-intensive scientific discovery. Redmond, Washington:

Microsoft Research.

• Key Perspectives Ltd. 2010. Data dimensions: disciplinary differences in

research data sharing, reuse and long term viability.

http://www.dcc.ac.uk/sites/default/files/documents/publications/SCARP

-Synthesis.pdf


http://escholarship.org/uc/cshe_fsc






51

Sources consulted:

• Kroll, Susan and Rick Forsman. 2010. A Slice of research life: information

support for research in the United States. Dublin, Ohio: OCLC Research.


• MacColl, John. 2010. Research assessment and the role of the library.

Dublin, Ohio: OCLC Research.


• MacColl, John, James Toon, Ricky Erway and Jennifer Schaffner. 2011.

New modes of research dissemination and support. Edinburgh: ERIS.

Forthcoming.

• NSF-OCI task force on data and visualization. 2011. Final report.

Redmond, WA: Microsoft Research. http://research.microsoft.com/en-

us/um/redmond/about/collaboration/Data_Task_Force_Draft_Final.pdf

• Palmer, Carole L., Lauren C. Teffeau, and Carrie M. Pirmann. 2009.

Scholarly information practices in the online environment: themes from

the literature and implications for library service development. Report

commissioned by OCLC Research.













52

• Pritchard, Sarah, Smiti Anand, and Larry Carver. 2005. “Informatics and

Knowledge Management of Faculty Research Data.” Educause 2005 (2).

http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERB0502.pdf

• Research Information Network (RIN) and the Consortium of Research

Libraries (CURL). 2007. Researchers’ use of academic libraries and their

services. London: RIN. http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/using-and-

accessing-information-resources/researchers-use-academic-libraries-and-

their-serv

• Research Information Network (RIN). 2008, Ensuring a bright future for

libraries: a guide for vice-chancellors and senior institutional managers.

London: RIN. www.rin.ac.uk/bright-futures-libraries

• Research Information Network (RIN). 2010. Research support services in

selected UK universities. London: RIN.

http://www.rin.ac.uk/system/files/attachments/Research_Support_Servi

ces_in_UK_Universities_report_for_screen.pdf

• Research Information Network (RIN) and Research Libraries UK (RLUK).

2011. The Value of libraries for research and researchers. London: RIN.

www.rin.ac.uk/value-of-libraries

Sources consulted:

http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERB0502.pdf

C:/projects projects projects/CNI/www.rin.ac.uk/bright-futures-libraries





http://www.rin.ac.uk/system/files/attachments/Research_Support_Services_in_UK_Universities_report_for_screen.pdf

http://www.rin.ac.uk/system/files/attachments/Research_Support_Services_in_UK_Universities_report_for_screen.pdf

http://www.rin.ac.uk/value-of-libraries







53

Sources consulted:

• Research Information Network (RIN). 2011. Reinventing research?

Information practices in the humanities. London: RIN.

http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/using-and-accessing-information-

resources/information-use-case-studies-humanities

• Schonfeld, Roger and Ross Housewright. 2010. Ithaka S + R faculty survey

2009: key strategic insights for libraries, publishers, and societies. New

York: Ithaka. http://www.ithaka.org/ithaka-s-r/research/faculty-surveys-

2000-2009/Faculty%20Study%202009.pdf

• Swan, Alma and Sheridan Brown. 2008. The Skills, role and career

structure of data scientists and curators: an assessment of current

practice and future needs. JISC: London.

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/digitalrepositories

/dataskillscareersfinalreport.pdf

• Thaesis, Jeffrey van der Hoeven. Insight into digital preservation of

research output in Europe: Insight report. PARSE.Insight, European

Commission: Brussells. http://www.parse-insight.eu/downloads/PARSE-

Insight_D3-6_InsightReport.pdf

http://www.ithaka.org/ithaka-s-r/research/faculty-surveys-2000-2009/Faculty Study 2009.pdf











http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/digitalrepositories/dataskillscareersfinalreport.pdf

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/digitalrepositories/dataskillscareersfinalreport.pdf



54

Sources consulted:

• University of Minnesota Libraries. 2006. A Multi-dimensional framework

for academic support: a final report.

http://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/5540/1/UMN_Multidimensional_F

ramework_Final_Report.pdf

• University of Minnesota Libraries. 2011. Discoverability, phase 2: final

report.

http://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/99734/3/DiscoverabilityPhase2Re

portFull.pdf

• Williams, Robin and Graham Pryor. 2009. Patterns of information use and

exchange: case studies of researchers in the life sciences. London:

Research Information Network and the British Library.

http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/using-and-accessing-

informationresources/patterns-information-use-and-exchange-case-studie

http://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/5540/1/UMN_Multidimensional_Framework_Final_Report.pdf

http://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/5540/1/UMN_Multidimensional_Framework_Final_Report.pdf

http://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/99734/3/DiscoverabilityPhase2ReportFull.pdf

http://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/99734/3/DiscoverabilityPhase2ReportFull.pdf

http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/using-and-accessing-informationresources/patterns-information-use-and-exchange-case-studie



















